1. Reference to Earlier Application
This application is a continuation-in-part of the now abandoned application Ser. No. 277,808, filed on June 26, 1981 by the same inventor.
2. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of interactive training devices of the type which permits a student to respond to a simulated situation on a video display terminal and to view the simulated result of that response on the same display terminal. It also relates to devices of the type which permit different students to interact with one another during the training process.
3. Prior Art
The age-old method of interactively training students by means of a human instructor in a classroom situation, when used in an industrial or other work setting, often suffers from a number of serious drawbacks, not the least of which is that the students do not always effectively implement the concept taught when they return to their work environment.
Products using video cassettes and video cassette players, and more recently videodiscs and videodisc players, have also been used in some situations to provide training and educational material in place of the human instructor in a classroom situation. In many situations, however, this approach has proven to be less than satisfactory in that feedback during the training process to reinforce the concepts taught is entirely lacking.
In addition, in today's ever-increasing and complex technological world, it is often desired to have persons who are very highly specialized in their training and in their job functions, who nevertheless must interact with other persons who are making other decisions which must be taken into account. A highly simplified, hypothetical example of such a situation would be a situation where three individuals are monitoring and controlling various parameters of a chemical or other process, parameters such as temperature, pressure and flow rate. It will readily be imagined that a decision by one of the individuals to change a certain parameter may affect the decisions of one or more of the other individuals with respect to the parameters they control. The difficulty of training individuals who must act in such situations is compounded by the possibly deleterious or catastrophic consequences that may result from incorrect real decisions. It is thus important to impress the significance of an incorrect decision upon the individuals in a simulated situation.
By the use of a small microcomputer in conjunction with a video cassette player or videodisc player, an opportunity for a student to test his or her understanding and to obtain reinforcing feedback can be provided. The basic components of such system include a video cassette or videodisc player, a television monitor, a microcomputer and an appropriate interface between the microcomputer and the video cassette or videodisc player. The effectiveness of the system using a video cassette player with a microcomputer in order to provide interactive training has been limited by the inordinate amount of time it can take to rewind the cassette to the required position in response to a command from the microcomputer. With the recent advent of videodisc technology using a laser beam to read the recorded information on a videodisc, however, direct and automatic access to the information on a videodisc within five seconds is typically possible, thereby minimizing this problem. While providing the opportunity for interactive training, such systems using a videodisc player have limited capacilities in that only a single student can use them at any one time. If many students located at different places within an industrial area are to be trained, it is often undesirable to have the students leave their work areas for the training and it would normally be troublesome, if not prohibitive, in time, cost, and possible damage to the training equipment, to move the equipment from student to student so that each student could be interactively trained in his or her own work environment. On the other hand, a costly duplication of training material and equipment would be necessary in order to provide such a training device for each student.
The present invention overcomes these problems in providing a system or network in which several students who may be remotely located with respect to one another in their working environments, are simultaneously interactively trained with a minimum of duplication of training material and equipment. In addition, in one embodiment of the present invention, the various students can interact with one another while being simultaneously trained in different aspects related to a common purpose, thereby providing a simulation of the situation in which the individuals will actually be interacting with one another while performing the functions for which they have been trained.